As you know, Brie Larson just won Best Actress at the age of 26 for her powerful performance as Ma in Room. IMDB has her next starring in The Glass Castle, an adaptation of the incredible memoir by former gossip columnist Jeanette Walls. (If you haven’t read the book it’s well worth it. I was so thrilled to realize after I read it that I had been reading her MSNBC column for years.) Brie is currently working on Kong: Skull Island and has a couple more films in the can for this year. Things were not always so rosy for Brie. She revealed during the press conference after her Oscar win that she was subjected to sexist casting.

Can you give an example in your career of a time when you really learned to stand up for yourself?
“In particular, there were many times that I would go into auditions and casting directors would say, ‘It’s really great. Really love what you’re doing, but we’d for love you to come back in a jean miniskirt and high heels.’ And those were always moments of a real fork in a road… there’s reason for me to show up in a jean miniskirt and heels other than the fact that you want to create some fantasy. You want to have this moment that you can reject and that’s the craziest part. I personally always rejected that moment. I tried maybe once and it always made me feel terrible. They were asking me to wear a jean miniskirt and heels to be sexy, but [that] does not make me feel sexy, it makes me feel uncomfortable. Learning, for me, what it took to feel confident and strong and take what these people were trying to get

In the press room, Larson was asked about a time when she learned to stand up for herself. “I ” she told reporters.

The actress explained that these moments were “a real fork in the road” for her, feeling that each time the situation presented itself, she had to make a distinct choice about whether or not to indulge the request.

“There’s no reason for me to show up in a jean miniskirt and heels other than the fact that you to create some fantasy,” Larson said. “I personally always rejected that notion… It always made me feel terrible, because they were asking me to wear a jean miniskirt and heels to be sexy, but a jean miniskirt and heels does not make me feel sexy. It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“Learning, for me, what it took to feel confident and strong and take what these people were trying to get to exude out of me, comes from a personal place.

“And trying to represent in film women that I know, women that I understand, complicated women, women that are inside of me — that became my mission.

“Every time… where I had to decide do or do not I wear a jean miniskirt… they became huge moments for me of confidence.”

[From video of Brie Larson’s press conference via Refinery 29]

This was so well put and makes me respect her that much more. She told a story of sexism but turned it around and explained how she personally rejected it and found strength and confidence. This reminds me of Michael Bay making Megan Fox wash his goddamn Ferrari to audition for Transformers. I used to work in the tech industry and I encountered some of this. It wasn’t this bad but I felt like I had to prove myself to the douchebro boys club at some of these companies and I’m sure I lost jobs for not putting up with it. I just had to find workplaces that treated women with respect. It must be so much harder in the entertainment industry, where you have to hustle to get jobs every few months and they have all sorts of built-in excuses for being sexist a-holes.

You can watch Brie’s press conference after the Oscars here. She about her journey getting to this point and she gets a little choked up around 2:00. Her comments about learning to stand up for herself start at 5:15. I was really inspired by her actually. She’s very well spoken and smart.

Oh and these photos recently came in of Brie at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, she must have been later than most of the arrivals. I’m glad she wore the other dress to the ceremony.